3 takeaways from Pistons 120-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves

2.Big wings continue to dominate against the Pistons

T.J. Warren, Tobias Harris, Otto Porter Jr, Jabari Parker, Doug McDermott, Marcus Morris – those are some of the big wings that have looked like Kevin Durant against the Pistons defense. You can add Andrew Wiggins on the list and you can save a little space for Jake Layman as well.

Wiggins scored 33 points, making 12-of-20 field goals, 3-5 three’s and 6-8 free throws. He also had five assists, six rebounds, a steal, a block and two turnovers. Opposing wings have been abusing the Pistons all year.

Snell does a good job of getting over the screen and riding him to the basket but he’s just not strong or long enough to make this a tough shot for Wiggins.

It’s a major trend this year. Even when Pistons are there to contest they just can’t match up with players like Wiggins. In transition, with a full head of steam, things are even tougher. Kennard can’t do much to bother this shot. At least he should try more than that.

And with a lineup of Kennard, Galloway and Rose you can expect Wiggins to get to the block and just rise up and shoot over people. Nothing Rose could do to stop this from going in.

This was the dagger that sealed the game for the Timberwolves. With the clock winding down, Drummond sees an opportunity to gamble for the ball as Towns gets ready to go into his fadeaway. Towns does a wonderful job of protecting the ball and makes an even better behind-the-back pass to Wiggins, just in time.

I don’t love Drummond’s decision here but it’s not a bad decision. He made life really hard for Towns here and the much-improved center handled it perfectly. Wiggins barely gets the shot off.

When Wiggins beats Kennard one on one, Maker does a good job of helping off the corner to force the pass. Snell’s positioning on the weak side is a little off. It’s way off when you consider that Gorgui Dieng is the man in the corner.

It’s a little off because, regardless of who’s spotting up, he’s a little too close to the ball and can’t cover that much ground. He’s way off because, with Layman being a much better shooter than Dieng, he shouldn’t have dropped that low.

WIngs like Layman have consistently been able to get hot from three and I suspect that it’s because they get easy points on drives and cuts. Snell completely loses him on a simple cut without any distraction whatsoever.

And when people cut backdoor he hasn’t been able to recover and contest shots at the rim. Snell hasn’t been impressive so far and given that he’s the Pistons best wing defender, that’s a major problem.

The other options are even worse. Galloway does a nice job of getting up on Layman with great footwork but he’s like a ball boy helping with his shooting drills. His standing reach is just insignificant against 6-foot-7 guys.

This is a difficult shot of course but the point is that the Pistons have a serious hole on their roster. One they can’t address internally. One that will be hunting them all season.